The Face of China by Emily Georgiana Kemp

The next morning we pursued our railway journey as far as Chowtsun, but we had great difficulty in getting tickets. Before leaving Shanghai we inquired at the bank what sort of money we should take for Shantung, and were told that notes would go everywhere, so we accepted what the bank gave us. On the railway they demurred at every place where we offered notes, and at Chowtsun they absolutely refused to take them. In vain I expostulated in German. The Chinaman pretended not to understand. Nothing would induce him to say a word or give us tickets, but he said in Chinese that he must have Mexican dollars. Finally, we left the office, and when the train arrived we had our luggage put in, and got in ourselves. The man came out of his office, and looked surprised. He then poured forth a flood of German. I told him that he would be reported for incivility at the station to which we were going, and where we would pay for our tickets. He had evidently imagined we should be intimidated and should produce the dollars. Chowtsun is a charming place, and we found plenty of the now fashionable Shantung silk to be bought there, but much finer in quality than one sees in London shops. We were taken to look at it in an inner room, and provided with tea. The merchant said that the Shantung silk blouse which I was wearing was very poor quality, and he showed us some lovely stuffs, all hand-woven.

On the counter were lying Manchester cotton goods, which are imported all over the Empire. It is interesting to learn that Shantung has been noted for its silks since 2640 B. C. In the Chinese classics of that date silk is referred to as being made in the south-west of the province, where the mulberries grow well.[3] At the present time the silkworms are fed on dwarf oak in the eastern part of the province, and pongée is made from their silk; but all the finer silks come from the west. From the time of Yu (who flourished B. C. 2640) there is continual reference made in the classics to sericulture. A later writer says that in his time it was forbidden to rear more than one breed of silkworms in a season, because astrologers had discovered that horses and silkworms belonged to the same constellation, and therefore must be of the same origin. Later on, in a classical book of the Han dynasty (B. C. 204), the ceremonies connected with it are described, and how the Empress herself took part in it, none of her ladies being allowed to wear jewelry when picking mulberry leaves to feed the young insects, and "none dare indulge in indolence"; "lewd conversation" was said to disturb the worms. From this time onwards it appears that successive empresses had to take a ceremonial part in the rearing of silkworms. Silk was the most interesting product of the province to us, but the main interest of the country to others lies in its mineral worth. The Germans have got mining rights, and have carried a branch line of the railway down to the coalfields at Poshan.